seasidemama

Depends on your child's maturity level and familiarity with ships in general and this ship in particular. Also whether you will be able to stay in reliable contact. My children 10 & 12 were allowed to sign in/out for the first time this year. I made sure they had phones, voom, knew they had to let me know (and wait for my confirmation that I know) that they are moving from one area to another. My children have been on multiple sailings though and this was their third time on this particular ship. Maybe monitor the first day and see how it goes. Edit: This was a very positive experience for them. Gave them a wonderful boost for confidence/independence. We live in a large city and do not allow this type of freedom independence at home. Giving them the opportunity for independence on the ship was a great growth opportunity for them (and me).

It's not for everyone but he made it work for him so all the more power to him. I imagine living single in a small apartment with not much opportunity to socialize, having to cook, clean, food shop and launder on your own can get pretty monotonous as well.

Which ship?

Not sure about Canada, but NYC has very much emptied out.. I don't remember an announcement though.

Unless you keep switching up ships, the entertainment never changes other than a comedy or headliner once a week and to me after I've seen it twice I'm no longer entertained. Even if you do keep switching ships, at 5 cruises per year, you are bound to repeat the same ships/shows more often than not. Lots of AIs have excellent animation teams, but you are not on a ship. You can hop in a cab and go find whatever entertainment is available outside that particular resort. Visiting different places is also subjective, other than Europe - not much new under the sun after the first few visits to that port. If you stay on land - you are just as free to book multiple excursions all to different places and different experiences on each day of your vacation. Just won't be in a different country. Another bonus is that you can actually book your own excursion at half the price and triple the selections available without worrying about missing the ship on the way back. Hotel will still be there even if you are late coming back.

Agreed. Service level and cruise pricing. Service level has gone down, cruise prices (and every other upcharge old and new) has gone up. If they want to compensate their crew more - they should take it out of the new "enhanced" dynamic prices.. (I pay gratuities plus extra so don't jump down my throat..)

I don't think the hold back is very well known. I think people truly believe cruises are almost full 12 months ahead of sailings and are grabbing what they think is the last availability at exorbitant prices (as of late) - which is the point of this RCL marketing strategy. Actually brilliant if you think about it... Free hype yielding very high returns. I do think at some point the strategy will backfire and prices will have to drop significantly to fill the large inventory of empty cabins. I don't think it will happen this year, but with the state of the economy and people racking up high APR debt, covid lockdown fever getting farther and farther in that rear view memory and future cruise credits exhausted - that's when the big bang will happen. What might also happen is in the interim, cruisers who were die hard RCL loyalists who chose to try other lines because of prices will stay with those other lines... I anticipate the earning calls to be much different when that happens. Just my 2 cents.

I'm looking at July/August 2024 sailings for 3x in room- only the following balcony options on multiple sailings are available: boardwalk guarantee, central park balcony guarantee, OV balcony guarantee. OV w/large balcony is the only balcony category with actual cabins available. Large balcony is pricing out at just under $2,000 pp for three in a room. Range between $1,680-$1,980 pp depending on the sailing. I very much doubt all these sailings a year out are almost sold out..

If you google 5/4/23 investor call transcript, you will find it. Here's the actual pertinent part: "Jason Liberty -- Chief Executive Officer Yes. Well, we actually, through the COVID period, had kind of shifted how we go to market with our inventory. We used to kind of put everything out there and all the suites would be sold basically right off the bat. And then you would kind of work your way down to the inside cabins. Well, now we hold back inventory and we release it, based off, of the much more sophisticated revenue management models that we have today. And so, all of that takes into account, you know, the demand environment we are seeing and that's why I think sometimes when we get into conversations around what percent booked are you? How does it relate to this period versus that period? What we are really focused on is optimizing yield. And so, there might be periods where, you know, quarter over quarter or year over year, we want to be in a stronger book position or less -- or lesser than what we were booked in a previous period because what we're focused on is maximizing yield, which, sometimes, you know, comes with us having more inventory to sell."

I believe it was in one of the recent investor calls. I read the published transcript.

looking at oasis class ships

Yes, ships are sailing at full capacity as of late. That does not explain why on eight different sailings on the same ship - 10-12 months from now all NLY have the same exact two balcony cabins available on each deck - all the way aft and all the way front. Maybe the desirable location theory would make sense if at least they were similar cabins on starboard/port side - but they are literally the same 2 cabins on each deck that are somehow the only ones available on each of these sailings.. It does make for a good pressure marketing tactic which is working very well for RCL.

I've been watching a few sailings on two different ships for next year for about two months now. It's always the same (limited) cabins that are available on each deck. Same cabin numbers on same decks for each different sailing date on the same ships (looking at next summer). One ship has the same decks and cabin numbers available on each sailing - all at really bad locations - all the way front or all the way aft. The other ship ONLY shows guarantee balconies (for cruises 10-12 months out). I don't want a guarantee balcony and I don't want to be all the way aft/fore and I really doubt this is the actual room availability. I know I can book now and change later as cabins become available, but if I book a guarantee the price to choose my cabin if that option becomes available will probably cost as much as another cruise.. Really annoying. I know RCCL is holding back rooms to give the appearance of high demand and pressure people to hit that book button but trying to give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe it's just a coincidence on these two ships that I'm watching. Their pricing shenanigans and cut backs as of late are really starting to get to me. Anyone else notice this when price shopping for next year?

Gosh, the front profile looks especially unappealing. I guess it doesn't matter so long as it looks good from onboard.. Even the Icon lettering looks like it's off..

Everyone has a right to their opinion and everyone's expectations and needs are necessarily different. I was responding to your comment that you didn't notice a downgraded experience - which is simply not true because the experience has in fact been downgraded. If that downgraded experience doesn't affect your enjoyment - fair enough. IMHO people are mostly annoyed that prices have skyrocketed and the product has been degraded. The market can only bare what it can bare. So long as people pay and ships are full, RCCL has no reason to make any concessions. I cruise because it's convenient for me and I like cruising. I booked well in advance for all my upcoming sailings through January 2024. I didn't purchase drink packages or UDP because by the time I came around to it - prices were insane. I may get a couple of specialty dinners but that's it and only because the MDR is not the experience I previously enjoyed. I am not as happy as I used to be and am no longer a cheerleader for RCCL because I don't see this as the bees knees anymore. I used to be up until about six months ago. I don't see value for the product I'm getting. If the prices didn't rise so much, I would be much more OK with the cutbacks. For the current price points, I will be looking elsewhere for sailings past January 2024. I may be happy or may be disappointed and come back, but before the current cut backs and price hikes I never even thought of booking another cruise line. Now it just seems like the smartest thing to do. For me. It's all subjective.

OK. That is your subjective opinion. Other people's opinions differ. From an objective quantifiable standpoint there has in fact been a downgrade: 1 stateroom service a day as opposed to 2. Half portions in izumi. Limit of 1 lobster tail on lobster night. Inability to order substitutions in MDR and having to wait for second dish when ordering two options from a course offering. No real half and half for coffee. Limit on the lemon slice size in drinks. Etc etc. I'm sure there are many more. These are all downgrades that can be quantified objectively. Downgraded quality of MDR food which is the biggest qualm I can think of right now is subjective. Sure, you can argue that these particular objective downgrades have not lowered the quality of your experience, but again, these are actual downgrades that lower the quality of many loyal RCL customers' experiences.

I think the issue is with royal loyalists. Cruisers who have enjoyed RCL's previous quality and standards are seeing and feeling the downgraded experience. This is where all the complaints are. People who just started to sail this year don't know any better. There's an article out there where the CEO talks about how new to Royal Caribbean are the majority of customers now - at a much higher rate than pre-covid.

Next 11 nighter is in September. I'll wait until those menus are posted. Going to have to make a note for myself. Do you know if the US menus are the same as the European sailings?

That would be true if I book the UDP. But like I said, I'm not getting the UDP.

I too wish the menus were posted in advance. Planning on an 11 night next year and want to book some specialty restaurants - not the UDP just 2-3 nights. From experience, if I wait until the menus are posted the few weeks before - by that time, reservations at dates/times we want will be difficult if the cruise is full. I'd hate to book a specialty on a night when I like the menu selections.

Thanks. Very helpful!

Thanks. I get how older teens may need/want more autonomy and less structure/direction but for a 13 year old boy with a group of 13 year old boys not visualizing how that might work well without getting boring really quickly... What did your girls do in the evenings? For daytime I'm less concerned since there's always ports/pool/sports etc.

Looking at the current sailings it matches the cruise compasses posted. Nothing else going on. Looks like evenings they are are on their own roaming the ship. I don't know how I feel about that because the only place for them to be would be arcade (gets expensive real fast) or the teen club and I don't know if there's anything interesting going on in the teen club. Worried of the "I'm bored" situation..

Getting ready to sail with a new teen.. First cruise to graduate from adventure ocean to teen club :). I'm looking at the most recent cruise planners and only see a couple of sports activities for teens and no other types of activities. There's a sports activity early evening and then a second one between 9-9:45pm. Are there organized activities going on that are advertised in the teen club and not shown on the planner OR are the teens pretty much left to wonder the ship aimlessly in the evening? I get the 15+ kids maybe wanting to do their own thing and not needing more structure but for 13 years old I'm a little worried. Any helpful info much appreciated!

Thanks. Curious because first time sailing an official holiday and we love 4th of July. Hopefully there'll be something fun for the kiddos.